Record Number: 12150

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'In various letters to Osborne he mentions having received "Tom Jones" which he did not care for; "Jane Eyre" he thought a "wonderful book"; in a volume titled "British Dramatists" he thought Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi" "the best by head and shoulders"; Carlyle's "Heroes and Hero Worship" he admired "exceedingly" (he proceeded to write an essay of twenty-six notepaper pages on Carlyle); of Thackeray's "Henry Esmond" he told Osborne that he thought it a "great book", though he disliked its "overelaboration": "perhaps you may say it is merely an additional grace - but I think it stands rather in the way of true eloquence and geninely forceful tragedy, not that I deny there is both eloquence and tragedy in 'Esmond', but I think there might have been more and grander but for that elaborateness".'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between 28 Feb 1880 and 27 Feb 1881

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Bideford
county: Devon

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Arthur Symons

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

28 Feb 1865

Socio-Economic Group:

Clergy (includes all denominations)

Occupation:

Wesleyan preacher's son, later poet

Religion:

Wesleyan, later none

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

Thomas Carlyle

Title:

Heroes and Hero Worship

Genre:

Essays / Criticism, History

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

borrowed (other)
borrowed from or given by Osborne

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

12150

Source:

Print

Author:

Karl Beckson

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Arthur Symons: A Life

Place of Publication:

Oxford

Date of Publication:

1987

Vol:

n/a

Page:

11

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Karl Beckson, Arthur Symons: A Life, (Oxford, 1987), p. 11, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=12150, accessed: 22 November 2024

---

Additional Comments:

[Quotations from three undated letters to Osborne, held at Princeton's Symons archive]